Deion Sanders featured in new DirecTV ads as ‘Coach Prime’ pigeon

Deion Sanders’ on-field impact as a top-level college football coach certainly can be debated following his Colorado Buffaloes’ 4-8 record in his debut FBS season last year. But he’s made an incredible mark on a public prominence front. And that’s now continuing with a starring role in new DirecTV ads.

Sanders was named Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsman of the Year” last fall despite his team’s struggles. And he brought massive attention and ratings to the Buffaloes, especially around their 3-0 start.

Sanders has also been featured in everything from the ongoing Amazon Coach Prime docuseries on Prime Video to regular appearances on radio and TV shows. And he’s gained attention for his social media approach, his often–testy relationship with traditional media, and more. He’s been notable for his ad campaigns as well, including an Aflac one with Nick Saban.

Now, Sanders is appearing in a new ad campaign with DirecTV animated pigeons Frank and Bobby. Those birds are voiced by Henry Winkler and Steve Buscemi respectively, some of the many prominent figures the brand has worked with. And the idea of these spots is to promote DirecTV’s satellite-free Gemini devices and their focus on making it easy for consumers to find the sports content they want to stream. Here’s that first “Coach” ad, featuring Sanders’ “Coach Prime” pigeon with a cowboy hat and gold whistle:

Here’s a 15-second version of an accompanying “Game Plan” ad, also featuring Sanders:

And here’s more on these ads from a DirecTV release:

The spot shows a couple in an apartment utilizing DIRECTV’s recently upgraded Your TV streaming interface, demonstrating how easy it is to find and access a wide variety of football content on a DIRECTV Gemini without a satellite dish.

“America fell in love with Bobby and Frank when we made them the stars of our nationwide campaign earlier this year to educate consumers that DIRECTV is available satellite-free,” said Vince Torres, chief marketing officer at DIRECTV. “With Coach Prime, we’ve added a new confident and very astute bird to the flock who expresses his excitement over how DIRECTV delivers an unparalled watching experience to sports fans.”

In addition to the spot featuring Coach Prime, a :30 spot named, “Game Plan” leans into the vast array of easily accessible college football games available on DIRECTV. “Game Plan” makes light of the common pain point that non-DIRECTV customers experience when they cannot find the game they want to watch, which DIRECTV alleviates. 

Both of these ads are set to be featured in upcoming national ad buys from DirecTV, including on college and NFL games. So that should further boost Sanders’ fame. But it’s interesting to see him featured so prominently by a brand considering some of the controversy around him at Colorado so far.

It certainly makes some sense for DirecTV to work with Sanders given his profile at this point. But we’ll see what on-field results he produces this fall and beyond. And we’ll see where the conversation about him as a rights-enhancer and advertising focus goes from there.

[DirecTV on YouTube]